Original Timmy Chan's

I think that's kicka$$!!!

Probably the same reason that the Dynamo want to get out of Robertson Stadium...too many conflicts with other events. The Dynamo want complete control over the facility. How is TSU's on-campus football stadium working out? I remember when I was at UH, TSU played their home games at Robertson.

Which is why UH left the Astrodome, and why we're reluctant to go back to Reliant Stadium even for occasional games. Even though the schools are getting charged to play there, the level of service at Reliant for a college game is horrendous. Remember the hour-long lines to buy tickets to the Bayou Bucket a few years back?

You may find this website of interest as you research Brays Bayou watershed flooding: http://www.projectbrays.org/index.asp HCFCD is working on over 70 projects throughout the Brays Bayou watershed. According to the website, channel modifications are underway between the mouth of Brays and Lawndale. Next phases of channel modifications are Calhoun to Ardmore (basically UH to 288) and Holcombe to Braeswood (Med Center). HCFCD is also underway on the Willow Waterhole Detention Basin at S Post Oak and S Main. That's where they bought up a bunch of old apartments, demolished them, and will replace them with 280 acres of detention basins that include parks and recreation features. I also recall hearing that part of Project Brays is the replacement of something like 50 bridges over Brays Bayou to increase capacity of the bayou. These are long-term projects...think on the order of a decade, not weeks or months. [EDIT: I guess me and travelguy are on the same wavelength this morning. He's just on a faster wave.]

I've always been curious about Bouray's...I think that's the name...the Mexican/Vietnamese/Cajun place. If I ever find myself downtown during the day, I'm gonna stop in for some enchiladas, refried bean sprouts and dirty rice.

Obviously the entire Houston metro area didn't understand the hoopla over Krispy Kremes, either. They should have known we have more discerning tastes here before they tried to dump their trash on us!

Vista Villas is the subdivision in Pasadena with the great Christmas lights. (Am I correct in the thinking that Mickey Gilley lived there?)

As I recall, it had to do with public access, not necessarily development of the park. I think the MacGregor family said that the land was given to the city on the condition that it be open to the public...but the city put locked gates on the only driveways into the parcel in question (between MLK and the bayou). I too noticed the "for sale" signs on the property a few weeks ago, and thought it was pretty interesting. This dispute came up several years ago, as I recall. Obviously someone was VERY forward-thinking back then, since that corridor down MLK from Wheeler will be served by light rail in a couple years. It's a very beautiful piece of property...a very scenic area, with MacGregor Park right across the street. I hope it's not junked up with the typical McDonald's, Jack-in-the-Box, dry cleaners, income tax prep and cell phone store strip development.

Is the Juan Seguin Memorial Interchange (SH 225 @ 610) the only named interchange in the Houston area?

I don't know about the rest of the Houston area, but there's a Dunkin Donuts on Southmore in Pasadena (just west of Pasadena Blvd). I think it's been there forever... However, since we have Shipley's here in Houston, I've never had to try a Dunkin' Donut.

Sounds to me like maybe you were just working for the wrong company... The people you work with and work for can make all the difference in the world. There are a lot of companies that I could go to and make more $$$, but you couldn't pay me enough $$$ to work there day in and day out. The headache isn't worth it. Look for a good company where you fit in and have good relationships. If the employees are honestly happy about their environment, it's a good place to be. Don't worry too much about the money, if you're happy, the money will come...and if it doesn't, at least you're happy! My suggestion is that, before making a major career change, give architecture another shot...but do it with the right group of people. Go to a company that will help you grow as an employee and as a person. They're out there...you just hooked up with the wrong one. Not all companies are created equal.

I should probably give the photographer, Stephen Pinchback, his due. Great website, lots of UH athletics pics: http://www.pbase.com/carboncopy/root

You mean this setup? The one with the great view of the downtown skyline? [/blatant Coog plug]

Because it was taken like 6 years ago?

Call your County Commissioner...I believe that's Pct. 4, Jerry Eversole.

What's a glide j? I pronounce it "Yew-stun" with just a little bit of "h". Like "hYewww-stun". Have I been wrong all these years?

As an architecturally illiterate citizen of Houston, I think the house is GREAT! It's on the same level as the Orange Show, the Beer Can House, the Flower Man...

That's the one! Cool place...but you gotta be compulsively driven and a damn good carpenter to build like that for 20 years. I wonder, does he have anything else up his sleeve for that house?

These hotel stories didn't happen to me, but were told to me by the eyewitnesses: 1) My cousin used to work at a Hobby Airport area hotel...a nice one (Marriott or Holiday Inn?), not one of the seedy joints. He told me one of the strangest things he ran into while he worked there was when he got a phone call at the front desk from one of the cleaning ladies about one of the rooms. He goes to check it out, and every square inch of every surface in the room was covered in Vaseline. Every wall, the mirrors, the toilet, the tub, the beds, the headboard, the TV...EVERYTHING! 2) A guy I used to work with had previously worked in an airport near Houston Intergalactic Airport. One year during the Rodeo he got a call at the front desk from one of the cleaning ladies. Apparently there was a hard freeze the night before and one of the cowboys brought his horse out of the trailer and into his room to keep it warm. That's all fine and dandy, except...THE HORSE DIED IN THE ROOM!!! Needless to say, if you've ever seen a dead horse moved, you know it takes heavy equipment. They had to knock out the wall of the hotel and bring in a backhoe to remove the horse. Of course, the cowboy was loooooong gone by this time... As far as my personal wierdest things I've seen, I'll just keep it short...Terlingua Chili Cookoff on LSD. Damn...people get crazy there. Or more accurately, crazy people get even CRAZIER there.

One of my all-time favorites is the one on Wichita (one block north of Southmore), between Dowling and 288 in 3rd Ward. The guy there has spent the last 20 years or so adding on to his house...building up, not out. He must have 4 or 5 stories now, with an observation deck and a steeple. You can see the steeple from 288. Anyone have pics of that place?

I don't know this for a fact, but aren't all the older gas stations being torn down to do environmental remediations on the underground storage tanks? They've recently closed two gas stations on Scott near 610, replaced the underground tanks, and reopened the gas stations. Others I've seen completely demolished, soil remediated, and another development goes up on top after the site is "clean". Usually it's a CVS.

I blame the editor. Damn liberal media...

Official 2007 Timmy Chan NFL Grades: Philadelphia Eagles: A+++++++++++++ Everyone else: F (i.e., no other Cougars drafted)

I have been for a four years now. I honestly can't say that I've been the victim of any outright racist hostility. If there's any racism directed my way, it's very subtle. I may just not be perceptive (or sensitive) enough to catch it... I thought for a little while that I was being discriminated against at the Popeye's near our house, but I soon realized that they offer the same $hitty service to all their customers, regardless of race. Now, I don't mean this to say that I think we're beyond racism. It's just not the outright, in-your-face racism of my parents' generation. Many of the same fears are still there, but it's just not PC to voice them. Racism is a subtle, unspoken thing nowadays.

From the NASA link in the original post: In the year 2000 Houston officially exceeded Los Angeles as the city with the worst air quality in the United States. Since then, major research has been underway to characterize the type, extent and sources of air pollutants in and around Houston. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) is participating in work underway to study Houston